UPDATE: Time runs out for original facade

Tom Davis, special projects manager for Houston Mayor Annise Parker, said officials do not plan to erect the building facade as it looked on the front of the old Sterling Laundry Co. Instead Davis said whatever can be saved from the original clock and building front will be used in a new archway over a walkway in Eastwood Park.

“We are very close to solving some of the issues and getting started,” Davis said.

Since 2009 when the building was razed, the facade has sat in a fenced area used by city parks officials for storage near Buffalo Bayou. Davis said leaving the facade outside didn’t factor into the decision not to relocate it.

“It was outside all this time, when the building was there,” he said.

Rather, safety and security led to the change in style, he said. The facade’s iron and stucco construction would not have safely stood in the park, and could have been a vandalism target.

The project will use all of the $83,500 Metro committed to relocate the clock, Davis said. The Greater East End Management District will maintain it, he said.

ORIGINAL POST: The clock tower is one of a handful of issues city and Metropolitan Transit Authority officials must resolve before trains roll on the Green and Purple lines later this year. Some of the others might take more time to resolve.

The issues range from water leak detection equipment to long-term permit reviews. Metro CEO Tom Lambert wants to resolve them quickly so they don’t come close to delaying the planned openings of the Green Line and Purple Line later this year.

Mario Chagolla, right, smooths out the first concrete for METRO’s East End Line light rail line at Harrisburg and Oakhurst on April 16, 2010. (James Nielsen/ Chronicle)

“We want to work these out, but that takes bringing them up and working through them,” Lambert said. “We’re going to get this done.”

The issues sometimes trail actual action along the lines, including the planned Richmond route of the University Line, which is years away from construction if in fact it ever gets built. City Public works officials have installed equipment to monitor for water line leaks and are waiting for Metro to contribute some of the cost, said Dan Menendez, deputy public works director.

Houston officials are still verifying costs, but they have spent between $1.2 million and $1.4 million on engineering related to the water lines on Richmond and a line along Harrisburg. Another $635,000 has been spent installing and buying monitoring equipment to detect leaks caused by the Green Line.

The city meanwhile has spent $10 million or more approving construction designs and permits for the rail line, Menendez said. Metro and the city agreed to a discounted rate for permits and approvals, but that was based on $600 million worth of construction and improvement to city right of way, and on construction being completed within five years of the 2007 agreement.

The value of the construction – which includes rail lines and stations, but omits features like the trains – has actually been $750 million and has been delayed.

Metro, which was expected to pay $3 million under the original terms, is working with the city to agree on a final cost, which will be at least $3.8 million based on transit system estimates, said Roberto Trevino, Metro’s director of capital programs.